Vikes’ Peterson wants Mike Vick on team

He may not get to vote on the matter, but Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has weighed in with his choice for his team’s next starting quarterback.

He may not get to vote on the matter, but Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has weighed in with his choice for his team’s next starting quarterback.

"@MikeVick would intently make the vikings a playoff team!" Peterson wrote in a Twitter message late Wednesday night.

That doesn’t quite make grammatical sense. It’s very likely he was responding to an NFL Network tweet earlier in the evening : "Mike Vick would instantly make ________ a playoff contender."

You remember Michael Vick. He was considered one of the league’s best quarterbacks until that whole dogfighting thing in 2007. He served nearly two years in prison. He returned to the league in 2009 and posted four seasons of varying quality as the Philadelphia Eagles’ starter.

Last season, Vick mostly rode the bench behind Pro Bowler Nick Foles. Yet he’s considered the best of a very mediocre crop of free agent quarterbacks that hits the market on Tuesday.

Vick appeared in only seven games last season. He completed 77 of 141 passes for 1,215 yards, with five TD passes and three interceptions. He also ran for two touchdowns.

Christian Ponder is the only quarterback currently on the Vikings’ roster. Matt Cassel voided his contract last month, and Josh Freeman was let go at season’s end.

The Vikings have the No. 8 pick in the NFL draft, which begins May 8 in New York. Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater, Central Florida’s Blake Bortles and Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel are considered the top quarterback prospects, but it’s likely they all will be taken within the first seven picks.

Peterson has not publicly complained much about the Vikings’ quarterback situation. But former star running back Eric Dickerson told the Pioneer Press last fall that Peterson desperately needs a better signal-caller.

"He really needs a quarterback; that would make it a lot easier on him," Dickerson said. "(Minnesota’s quarterback situation is) terrible. … It’s hard to watch. It’s extremely tough (for Peterson). It’s frustrating. … It’s just hard on (Peterson). I mean, he won’t say it as a player. But it’s frustrating to walk to the line of scrimmage and see eight (defenders) in the box, sometimes nine."